Two more days in Arches

We have had two more days of hiking in Arches, yesterday cloudy but today a brilliant cobalt blue sky again. A couple of times, Joe read in the car while I added a more strenuous loop, and he says Christopher Browning’s “Dismantling Democracy 1933 vs. 2018” in the New York Review is a must-read. So he was not wasting time while sitting in a parking lot, even though once I could have sworn that I saw his eyes closed when I returned to the car.

The park is crowded, lots of families, lots of retired couples, lots of international visitors. It is good to see how many people are up for taking a three hour walk with some elevation gain just to see a hole that erosion has made in a rock.

Last night’s dinner has to set the record for the best customer service ever. We went to a very crowded and busy pizzaria with a real wood burning stove no less, and found that the two tables next to us had turned over twice and we still had not gotten our pizza. Joe had a big bowl of toscana soup which took some time, but even so, we were starting to wonder what was going on. The waitress came and apologized, saying that something had happened to our ticket. Then the head cook brought out the pizza and apologized again. We said we were fine, not a problem, we are on vacation. Then the manager came to apologize and we told him the same thing. About ten minutes later, the waitress told us that our pizzas were on the house because of the bad service, but that under Utah law we would have to pay for our glasses of wine. Fine, but really not necessary. Then ten minutes later, the owner of the restaurant came and told us he wanted to treat us to dessert. Never in all my days have I gotten such attention over a late pizza! Forma Antica is the name of the place, and in addition to the service, their pizza was excellent. And tasted good after our morning hike as well!

Tomorrow, we’re out of Moab and on the way back!Read more